The Vertical Mosaic in the 21st century: The Great Canadian Class Study

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Maroto, Michelle

• SSHRC IG awarded 2020: The Great Canadian Class Study (GCCS) aims to reinvigorate the study of economic inequality and class stratification in Canada -- a vital undertaking in light of ongoing economic and social change --through a large-scale mixed-methods project. Does social class function as a useful category in diverse 21st century post-industrial societies like Canada? To what extent do economic disparities, social connections, and cultural distinctions combine to form social classes in the complex and multi-dimensional social space of this country? In addition, how do individuals from different backgrounds understand their class positions? And, how do dimensions of inequality, including race, immigrant status, gender, age, and geographic location, intersect with class to influence political attitudes and wellbeing? In answering these questions, the GCCS will (1.) address ongoing theoretical debates about the continued usefulness of social class through (2.) an ambitious theoretically-informed empirical investigation using secondary data sources, a large public web survey, a set of in-depth interviews, and a nationally representative survey that (3.) tackles issues of class distinctions by considering economic, social, and cultural capital. Thus, the GCCS aims to rehabilitate the notion of class as a conceptual category for the 21st century by opening up Bourdieu's (1984) theory of social space, to consider the effects of race, ethnicity, immigrant status, gender, age, and geographic location. The GCCS will also examine class dynamics in conjunction with emerging features of inequality in the 21st century -- runaway wealth at the top, growing numbers of working people in poverty, and the increasing salience of other social identities in determining political mobilization (Banting and Myles 2013; Western et al. 2012).

• Date created

  2019-10-11

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Insight Grant
  • IG
  • SSHRC
  • Inequality
  • Social Class
  • Economic, Social, and Cultural Capital
  • Stratification
  • Sociology
  • Social Structures
  • Social Relations
  • Social Development and Welfare
  • Population Studies
  • Poverty
  • Canada

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-4ezn-xy21

• License

  © Maroto, Michelle. All rights reserved other than by permission. This document is embargoed to those without UAlberta CCID until 2026.